


Notre Dame des Amis

by Phileas



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Combeferre is the chilliest tainted-glass person ever, Everyone is part of the cathedrale, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 05:55:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1182687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phileas/pseuds/Phileas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was eleven and the sun was just setting, leaving Paris for the night.<br/>Atop the cathedral, Grantaire opened his eyelids made of stone, the faintest sound of dragged rocks echoed over the roof. Slowly, minutes by minutes, he felt his members come to motion and he sniffed quietly, extending his grey arm to shoo away a passing pigeon.<br/>When, a last, his feet were free from his pedestal, he climbed down the wall to access the small brown wooden door that would let him inside the cathedral.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notre Dame des Amis

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little bit for Helena, who always reads everything I write, and the next chapters couldn't have been written without her comments!! =)

It was eleven and the sun was just setting, leaving Paris for the night.

Atop the cathedral, Grantaire opened his eyelids made of stone, the faintest sound of dragged rocks echoed over the roof. Slowly, minutes by minutes, he felt his members come to motion and he sniffed quietly, extending his grey arm to shoo away a passing pigeon.  
When, a last, his feet were free from his pedestal, he climbed down the wall to access the small brown wooden door that would let him inside the cathedral. He was singing quietly to himself, and his voice was similar to the sound of a blade sharpened over an oilstone.  
As he walked down the narrow and interminable stairs leading to the nave, he was joined by a small laughing angel.  
“Bonsoir, R majuscule!  
“Bonsoir Gavroche.” Grantaire smiled at the petite statue. “What's new today downstairs?  
“Not much. The mass was all right but Bahorel almost caused a commotion.  
“Again?”  
Gavroche started laughing and nodded.  
“Something about eggs. I like him, he's great.”

Grantaire could only shake his head in amusement, mere seconds before they reached the end of the stairs. They were greeted by a chorus of voices and cheers.  
“No, I tell you! She was watching me and her thoughts really weren't that Christian!  
“Courfeyrac, you are St Sebastian... Men and women alike come here to stare at you in less than religious ways.  
“Yeah, well...”  
Grantaire laughed again and the sound was that of a landslide. The marble statue of the archangel Gabriel turned toward him and gestured for him to join them in the small corner that was theirs, in a side chapel. Grantaire blinked rapidly, the heart of stone in his chest turning to flesh for a fleeting moment.  
“Enjolras.” He smiled and sat down by Joly and Bossuet's sides, greeting the angel and the saint with a pat on their granite shoulders. He then looked up and waved at Combeferre on the stained glass windows. The man smiled gently and turned his eyes back to Enjolras and Courfeyrac who had launched the former on a heated theological debate, and soon were joined by Feuilly.

“Where is Jehan?” Grantaire asked a few minutes later when talks of the council of Zion started to bore him.  
Bahorel made a small sound of displeasure and pointed toward the other side of the nave. Grantaire turned his eyes to the darker part of the cathedral and saw the sculpture of a young St John the Apostle sitting by the statue of Lucifer, his elbows on his knees and his chin in his palms. Around them were lurking various fallen angels and gargoyles that Grantaire knew from the roof.  
Montparnasse was, as usual, regaling the other boy with tales of foreign countries and exhibitions he had been seen and admired in. They both looked so young, it made Grantaire sigh and shake his head with a small sad smile. He knew what was in their eyes, he saw it in their hesitant hands and hidden smiles. If his cheeks were made of skin, Jehan would blush and bow his head in timidity.  
The gargoyle sighed again and folded his hands on his laps.  
Nothing good would possibly come out of this. It was an unspoken agreement among their kind, that love was not something to indulge in. They all had heard the story of those two in Reims, in love with each other, until one night they disappeared in a gigantic crash of stones.  
He sighed a third time and that made Joly turn toward him.  
“What is it with you tonight?”  
Grantaire smiled and shrugged.  
“Nothing my four-winged friend. Simply the physical expression of my inner turmoil! You know us, gargoyles... Always grimacing at the smallest things.”  
His joke made Joly laugh but did not distract him from the subject.  
“And what is the matter tonight?  
“Well,” Grantaire said pensively “I was pondering over the deep significance of our dear Gabriel's name and the infinitive of it's conjugaison au futur simple. How fitting.” His smile was wide and displayed big grey teeth.  
Joly frowned and looked at Bossuet who was reciting verbs under his breath before huffing a laugh as Joly rolled his eyes with amusement.  
“You think you're so clever, Grantaire.  
“My friends, I am-

His sentences was interrupted by the loudest noise they had ever heard. It was as if the cathedral was collapsing on itself, like rocks and gravel were rolling down the roof and crashing in the middle of the nave. A thick cloud of dust rose among them and Grantaire stood up in alarm, trying to locate Enjolras. When the noise and chaos subsided, all that could be heard was heavy panting and coughing...  
It took merely five seconds for the statues to panic. Stone couldn't cough, they didn't possessed lungs. Bahorel whispered a very quiet “Humans...”

Grantaire was the first to see them. Standing where Jehan and Montparnasse used to be. Two young men of flesh and bones, impossibly alive. Jehan realised soon enough and closed his eyes as if to make it go away while Montparnasse was looking at his new hands in fear and awe.  
Then, with a strange delicacy, he touched Jehan's cheeks from the tip of his fingers and, gasping at the warmth, wrapped his whole hand around the other boy's jaw.  
“Jehan...”  
The former saint looked up to Montparnasse and suddenly they were embracing and Jehan had tears behind his eyelids and the sensations were marvellous and new.  
Everyone was looking at them now. Everyone except Grantaire who had turned his unblinking gaze toward Enjolras, imagining what he didn't, couldn't know. Soft skin and rounded hips, the gentle curve of a neck under rough hands. What did skin feel like anyway?

“What a mess.”  
The new voice made everyone startle and the two new humans turn around in fright.  
“I told you this would happen. I told you so. But did you listen, no! As always.  
“Javert, calm down...”  
The second voice belonged to the night care-taker, Jean Valjean, who was accompanied by a man they didn't know.  
“No! I told you, “Jean, it's a stupid idea to let Lucifer and John the apostle flirt in your cathedral!” You know better than that.  
“Exactly, I know better. As I recall, the last time something of this fashion happened here it ended pretty well.”  
There was a huff from the tall and stern man called Javert, and his larger companion turned toward them with a benevolent smile.  
“Well... Good evening.” He was holding blankets that he handed out to Jehan and Montparnasse. “Welcome to mortality.  
“What happened?” asked Jehan, unsure.  
Javert huffed again in annoyance.  
“What do you think happened? You two fell in love, that's what happened.”  
Valjean looked at him with fondness and guided the two half naked boys to a bench. The other statues and tainted glass figures were hesitant to move, but followed the scene with great attention.  
“What you just did... You have to understand that there is no way for you to go back to what you were. Now that you are human it's for good.  
“But...” Jehan spoke shyly, “We... did nothing wrong...  
“No, you didn't.” Javert answered smoothly. “But there are consequences you can't ignore.  
“I gather that you tried to... kiss?”  
Jehan blushed terribly and felt light-headed at the sensation of blood rushing to his head. Montparnasse simply nodded.  
Javert and Valjean looked at each other and the former sighed again.  
“Well. As you are well aware, kissing does not serve any purpose for carved stone because we don't have nerves. By kissing anyway, holding hands or God knows what else, on top of your mutual feelings, you emulated human-beings and thus were granted human life. Congratulations.”

The silence in Notre Dame was terribly heavy until Enjolras frowned and tilted his head.  
“Do you mean to say that you used to be a statue too?”  
Javert nodded and straightened.  
“I once was an archangel. Bringer of justice with the flaming sword.  
“What happened?”  
At this Valjean sniggered and hid his smile under his large hand. Javert turned red.  
“Well... I...  
“He fell in love with a tainted-glass shepherd and pursued him through the whole cathedral for nights on until the poor young shepherd grew tired of running and faced him on.  
“This is not how it happened!” Javert's soft voice boomed in their corner of the chapel. “And I wouldn't be where I am now if the damn boy hadn't loved me in return!”  
Valjean smiled gently and pat his hand.  
“I know. I was only teasing you. But the thing remains. You are now fully human and we need to find you papers and identities. Luckily for you, you are not the first, nor the last, to whom it happened. We have means and ends.”  
Jehan and Montparnasse, who looked barely over twenty in their new bodies, laced their fingers together and huddled close in companionship.

The gentle whisper of the human voices was only broken by the sharp sound of Grantaire standing up and gingerly leaving the small side chapel.  
“Grantaire!” Joly called after him. “Where are you going?  
“I'm going back upstairs... Tonight is not a time for gargoyles and monsters.” He answered calmly.  
In a handful of steps, he was gone.

 

 


End file.
